tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172825069420547252.post7442359393459775521..comments2008-03-28T10:19:44.246-04:00SDACThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555968418793041446noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-172825069420547252.post-72945361211681820362008-03-28T10:18:00.000-04:002008-03-28T10:18:00.000-04:002 March 2008<BR/><BR/>To the Editor:<BR/>Bravo to the extra-Ordinary students at Holy Redeemer who are living out their faith by supporting the teachers' unionization effort. If anyone deserves detention, it should be the Ordinary of the Diocese, who was apparently absent from his church-history classes the day they were studying the Sermon on the Mount, to say nothing of Leo XIII and the long and honorable tradition of Catholic social principles.<BR/> The students give me hope that the Church of the future may indeed have the spiritual guts to break free from its present captivity to lawyers, technocrats, and public-relations advisers and become pastoral once again. More than 40 years ago, I graduated from one of the parish high schools that eventually merged into Bishop Hoban and, now, Holy Redeemer. Back then, the nuns taught us that the most important things in life were to stay in a state of grace and keep your nose clean by never crossing a picket line. We learned how Cardinal Gibbons went to Rome on behalf of American labor unions; how Terence Powderly, the Catholic mayor of Scranton, was one of the founders of the Knights of Labor; and how Bishop Hoban and Monsignor Curran worked with Theodore Roosevelt and Johnny Mitchell on behalf of the United Mine Workers. Of course, we never dared harbor the thought back then that the nuns were really a source of cheap labor for an all-male priesthood and hierarchy, living in overcrowded convents and working for a widow's mite with a 50:1 student-teacher ratio in every classroom. Fair enough, we had a different world view then: spiritual discipline and sacrifice were valued differently--we saw things <I>sub specie aeternitas</I> so to speak. But hey, when you have to wait till hell freezes over for the church to recognize the dignity of a living wage and decent working conditions, eternity is in our midst in a radically different way. <BR/> I really see signs of the Spirit moving in what happened on Friday: the power of the laity to speak truth to power, even in Christ's church. Now <I>that</I> is worthy of eternity!<BR/> Edward Moran<BR/> Brooklyn, NYEdwardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09320073462916429641noreply@blogger.com